24 hours in an all Microsoft world

With Windows 8, Microsoft have started down the road to platform unification.

I’ve spoken before on what the end game would be for a unified Microsoft – Phone, Tablets, Bing, Xbox, PC’s, Laptops, Servers etc all communicating with each other via cloud based web services.

I started thinking about what our lives would look like if everything went according to plan.

Here’s my vision of how it would work – 24 hours in a Microsoft enabled world.

Morning

Get woken up by an Alarm on your Windows Phone. Head to the kitchen to make some coffee. Head back to the living room where the Xbox and Kinect detected your presence and started the TV.

The Kinect swivels from left to right as you move so you can give it commands from anywhere in the room.

You watch your financial TV show and are able to check your stock portfolio in real-time via the Kinect and Xbox. You are able to check your email via the TV and you have the Xbox read your emails out to you.

You tell the Xbox to remind you of an important message you have to give to your boss at 11am. It automatically puts the reminder in your calendar.

You go to take a shower and get ready for work.

In the car

Once you’re in the car, your Windows Embedded terminal in your car syncs with your phone and tablet.

Using information from Bing Maps, it’s able to recommend alternative traffic routes to save you time.

Your car reads your emails to you and notifies you of new messages. You’re able to dictate emails and instant messages while you’re driving.

You need to join a conference call while you’re driving so the car takes the number from your appointment book and dials it, with the # signs and conference numbers.

At work

You have your Windows Phone in your pocket and your Intel Windows Tablet in your hand. Ultrabooks and Laptops stopped being necessary years ago.

You dock your tablet into your terminal and you can use it with a keyboard, mouse and monitor.

You log into your work domain and your Microsoft account is deactivated but your corporate account is activated. You only have access to corporate cloud services with the exception of your calendar.

Your Xbox message beeps and reminds you to give your boss the message.

Using Skype, you get on your first video conference call of the day with 5 different countries. In the middle of that call, the screen is minimized because you have an incoming video call from your wife. You take the call briefly to answer her question and once you hang up, you are back on the video conference call.

You remember you want to tape a tv show so you send your Xbox an email saying “record 60 minutes”. The Xbox at home receives the email and starts the process of recording that series for you.

You walk down the hall to a conference room for a meeting with your tablet and take notes with a stylus. Paper stopped being used 7 years ago.

At your next meeting, using Bluetooth, you are able to connect your tablet to a projector and give that presentation. During the presentation, you use your stylus to take real-time feedback on the slides.

You use Bing throughout the day because (unlike Google) it will send you emails and personalize the results and make arrangements for you.

You are able to ask Bing questions about the nearest Irish bar and it finds 5, cross references their ratings on Yelp and then recommends the top 2 based on user feedback.

You tell Bing to send the directions to the car. It does.

Back Home

After an evening at the bar, you head home and are able to watch 60 minutes because the Xbox recorded it.

I don’t think so. It’s a little bit sad dealing with a machine all day. But of course, we’ll have technology to do it sooner or later. But I have some concerns about voice based’s technologies. It seems to be nice, but imagine how crazy it can be. A lot of people in their companies or walking on the street, talking to their machines (or even worse, making strange signs to their gadgets). I think we have to develop something more soft.